Think of a World’s Fair and images of monorails, futuristic architecture and unusual foods may come to mind. But back in the day, a World’s Fair was a showcase of commerce and art. The NOMA exhibit features works seen at fairs from 1851 to 1939. NOMA spokeswoman Lisa Rotondo-McCord strolled among the packing boxes to highlight what’s in store for visitors.

“There’s a very large silver vase called the Tennyson Vase that greets you when you walk into the exhibition, and it is just a marvel of silver craftsmanship," Rotondo-McCord said. "It tells the story of King Arthur, scenes from the life of King Arthur, including this amazing battle scene which is the first thing you see when you walk in the exhibition, and then the death of King Arthur is shown on the back. It’s incredibly elaborate, very ornate. The chain mail is sort of all individually crafted. So you can just imagine just the amount of labor and effort that went into this piece, and the expense that it engendered.”

It’s from England and was made in 1857. In 1984, New Orleans hosted the last World’s Fair that included the participation of the United States. They’re mostly held in South America and Asia now to showcase new technology and they may seem a bit of a relic, a throwback to the days before the World Wide Web came into being.

“People will say now that the Internet is a World’s Fair. I mean, it’s the world’s marketplace, you want to see something great," Rotondo-McCord continued. "But in a World’s Fair environment wonderful things are selected for you. So if you Google something it’s a very democratic kind of process. The best of the best doesn’t necessarily pop up first at the head of the list. But in a World’s Fair each nation chose the best that they had to offer; the most innovative, the most technologically advanced, something that dealt with the natural resources of their country. So it was curated, essentially, for you.”

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